Space Race
In this Main Match, acquire parts and sabotage your opponents to be the first to make it to space.
| Designer(s): ISamEI | Match Type: MM (for 5~9 players) |
| Featured in: Mainly By Design, Community Hosted Genius Game 3 | |
The year is 1950. Each player controls one of nine nations striving to rocket the first person into Space. Will you take one small step for your country, or will you leap into complete obscurity? Welcome to…
🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 SPACE RACE 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀
Each submission will be considered a “year” in game time, from 1950 to 1963.
Every round, you will acquire parts and decide whether to launch your spacecraft.
Tensions have run high in the Space Race. **Private comms and garnet transfers are illegal - though there may be ways to get around these restrictions. **
🌍 🌎 🌏 🌍 🌎 🌏 🌍 🌎 🌏 🌍 🌎 🌏 🌍 🌎 🌏 🌍 🌎 🌏 🌍 🌎 🌏 🌍 🌎 🌏 🌍 🌎 🌍 🌎 🌏
Acquiring Parts and Espionage
Every year, each player will decide to acquire parts, with each part represented as a card drawn from the Spaceship Parts deck.
Unfortunately, the Space Race will not be easy. Players will engage in complex mind games to acquire parts.
Number cards from 0-12 are present in the Spaceships Parts deck. Each card has its own unique ability (see cards glossary) and five of each are in the deck. Every round, six new random cards will be available. If the deck runs out, the cards are reshuffled.
Every round, each player will select a card and an espionage level from which to pursue that technology, from Espionage Level 0 to Espionage Level 10.
We determine who receives the card as follows. First, we check who has pursued the part at the “lowest” espionage level (0 being the lowest)
If that level is not part of a consecutive-streak in levels formed by people pursuing the card, the player(s) at that lowest level receive the part.
🕵️ Example 1 🕵️
Acquiring Gold Plating at...
Espionage Level 0: [Buzz, Neil]
Espionage Level 1: [Empty]
Espionage Level 2: [Laika]
Espionage Level 3: [Yuri]
Buzz and Neil would both receive the card, since they are at the lowest espionage level chosen by players, and that level is not part of a streak. 2-3 is a streak, but 2 is not the lowest espionage level selected.
If that lowest level is part of a chain of consecutive levels selected, then the player(s) who submit the highest level in the streak receive it. This is called stealing and player (s) who receive a card this way additionally get a one garnet reward.
🕵️ ** Example 2 ** 🕵️
Acquiring Gold Plating at...
Espionage Level 0: [Buzz, Neil]
Espionage Level 1: [Yuri]
Espionage Level 2: [Empty]
Espionage Level 3: [Laika]
Yuri would receive the card and one garnet for being at the highest level in the 0-1 streak, "stealing" gold plating.
🕵️ Example 3 🕵️
Acquiring Gold Plating at...
Espionage Level 0: [Empty]
Espionage Level 1: [Empty]
Espionage Level 2: [Buzz]
Espionage Level 3: [Neil, Laika ]
Neil and Laika would receive the card and one garnet for being at the highest level in the 2-3 streak.
🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 Launching 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀
Every year, you must also decide whether to launch your spacecraft. If you do not specify your decision, it is assumed that you chose not to launch. Launching is a double-edged decision: a successful launch can win you the Space Race while a botched one will set back your space program.
When you launch, your distance will be recorded. The distance you launch is the sum of the values of all the cards in your possession, including any you may have acquired this same year (that you don’t yet know you have).
After the launch is complete and your distance is recorded, you discard the card you have that currently has the highest value (which isn’t necessarily the same as the card with the highest number). If there is a tie for your highest value card, discard the card whose name is alphabetically first.
For example, if I have a 1, 5, 9 and 10, and I launch, I will go 25 (thousand) feet and then discard the 10 afterwards.
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 SPACE! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
You win the game by launching and reaching SPACE!. If you reach SPACE!, you win and earn 2 TOLs and 10 garnets.
If multiple people reach SPACE!, all players who reach SPACE! in that round earn 10 garnets, but the one who flew the farthest wins 2 TOLs and 10 garnets. If multiple people reach the same height then they each receive 1 TOL and 10 garnets instead. If more than 4 players reach the exact same winning height, their rocket ships run into each other and explode, those players discard a card, and if no other player reached SPACE! the game continues.
When a player reaches SPACE!, the elimination candidate will be the player who flew the least distance that year. If there is a tie, then the winner(s) will agree on the elimination candidate (or lose their TOLs and have a random one among them be EC instead).
The distance that qualifies as SPACE! changes round by round due to background radiation.
SPACE! is a minimum of 27 (thousand feet), but may randomly increase to up to 54 (thousand feet). Each player in the game will receive a random number from 0-3 each year; SPACE will be at 27+ the sum of all those numbers in the round.
🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 Extra TOL 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅
A bonus TOL and 10 garnets is given to the player who has the highest recorded launch in a round no player achieved SPACE!. This TOL is in recognition to that country’s services to science as a space research pioneer. Ignore this player when calculating the Elimination Candidate. This player can still earn TOLs and Garnets from reaching SPACE! in addition to receiving this reward.
💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 Communication 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻
This is a limited comms mm
There are two ways to communicate - either by building telegraph lines with garnets, or having the all-powerful Comms Array (card 5).
See #telegraph-line-construction for info about telegraph lines.
Comms Array, when acquired, allows you to send and receive messages to all players, and send and receive garnets.
📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 ** Public Information ** 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣 📣
The following information is public:
All attempts by players to acquire cards and what cards they acquired.
The cards each player has in hand
Players who used missiles and who they targeted (see card 9)
Garnets spent on Combustion Engine (see card 2*)
Garnets spent to construct "telegraph lines" and your "telegraph lines" open
Who launched and their launch distance
Background radiation total of that year
Garnet counts at match end.
🧑🚀 🧑🚀 🧑🚀 🧑🚀 🧑🚀 🧑🚀 🧑🚀 🧑🚀 🧑🚀 🧑🚀 ENDGAME 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀 👩🚀
Each submission is a “year” in Space Race time. Each submission is a card acquiring attempt, along with whether or not you launch.
If no player succeeds in a rocket launch, the game ends when 1963 ends, with only the “extra TOL” being given out. Humankind fails and must look to places other than SPACE for inspiration. (edited)
CARD GLOSSARY
Two of these together are worth 20 (10 each). If you have 3 of these, the third has no value because it’s not in a pair. If you have 4 they are all worth 10 because you have 2 pairs.
There is no way to acquire these other than to fail a steal attempt or to be stolen from.
Feeding garnets into this on launch increases its value. For example, if you spent 5 garnets, this card is treated as a 7 and is potentially discarded. Combusted garnets are of course, gone.
A straight is a set of 5 consecutive numbers, for example 0-1-2-3-4 or 8-9-10-11-12. 0 and 12 do not wrap around. Ignore value when constructing a set.
Card is named Multi-stage Launch, not Multi-Stage Lunch.
Cat Converter stands for Catalytic Converter, unless your nation has a terrible secret.
You can send and receive messages from all players, send and receive garnets from all players, and create any number of alliances as long as they include you.
This card can prevent players from winning the game if it reduces someone’s height below space.
One player can launch multiple missiles and the effect of missiles stack.
At worst, missiles can reduce your height to one below the threshold of space. Who you target is public. Mandatory usage (but usage does not cause a discard).
You can’t try to acquire this if you don’t have at least 2 garnets. Sorry.
If you don’t have any other cards when you gain Intense Fuel, you end up discarding Intense Fuel.
When you acquire this, you don’t get your own special launch phase; you are simply forced to launch with everybody else.
The year is 1950. Each player controls one of five nations striving to rocket the first person into Space. Will you take one small step for your country, or will you leap into complete obscurity? Welcome to…
🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 SPACE RACE 🚀🚀🚀🚀
Each submission will be considered a “year” in game time, from 1950 to 1963.
Every round, you will acquire parts and decide whether to launch your spacecraft.
Acquiring Parts and Espionage
Each player will decide to acquire parts, with each part represented as a card drawn from the Spaceship Parts deck.
Unfortunately, the Space Race will not be easy. Players will engage in complex mind games to acquire parts.
Number cards from 1-12 are present in the Spaceships Parts deck. Each card has its own unique ability (see cards glossary) and five of each (except card 1) are in the deck. Every round, everything is discarded and cards will be drawn until four unique cards are available (duplicate cards are discarded). If the deck runs out, cards are reshuffled.
Every round, each player will select a card and an espionage level from which to pursue that technology, from Espionage Level 0 to Espionage Level 4.
We determine who receives the card as follows. First, we check who has pursued the part at the “lowest” espionage level (0 being the lowest).
If that level is not part of a consecutive-streak in levels formed by people pursuing the card, the player(s) at the lowest level receives it.
Example 1
Acquire Gold Plating
Espionage Level 0: [Buzz, Neil]
Espionage Level 1: [Empty]
Espionage Level 2: [Laika]
Espionage Level 3: [Yuri]
Buzz and Neil would both receive the card, since they are at the lowest espionage level chosen by players, and that level is not part of a streak. 2-3 is a streak, but 2 is not the lowest espionage level selected.
If that level is part of a chain of consecutive levels selected, then the player(s) who submitted the highest level in the streak receives it. This is called stealing and a player (or multiple) who receives a card this way additionally gets a one garnet reward.
Example 2
Acquire Gold Plating
Espionage Level 0: [Buzz, Neil]
Espionage Level 1: [Yuri]
Espionage Level 2: [Empty]
Espionage Level 3: [Laika]
Yuri would receive the card and one garnet for being at the highest level in the 0-1 streak.
Example 3
Acquire Gold Plating
Espionage Level 0: [Empty]
Espionage Level 1: [Empty]
Espionage Level 2: [Buzz]
Espionage Level 3: [Neil, Laika ]
Neil and Laika will not receive a card, and neither would buzz.
Players who fail to acquire a part in a round receive a Knock-off Parts, either as a result of sabotage because they are terrible spies (lore-wise).
Launch
Every year, you must also decide whether to launch your spacecraft. If you do not specify your decision, it is assumed that you chose not to launch. Launching is a double-edged decision: a successful launch can win you the Space Race while a botched one will set back your space program.
When you launch, your distance will be recorded. The distance you launch is the sum of the values of all the cards in your possession, including any you may have acquired this same year (that you don’t yet know you have).
After the launch is complete and your distance is recorded, you discard the card you have that currently has the highest value, after all calculations (which isn’t necessarily the same as the card with the highest number). If there is a tie for your highest value card, discard the card that is alphabetically first.
For example, if I have a 1, 5, 9 and 10, and I launch, I will go 24 (thousand) feet and then discard the 10 afterwards.
SPACE
You win the game by reaching SPACE. If you reach SPACE, you win and earn 2 TOLs.and 5 garnets.
If multiple people reach SPACE, all players who reach SPACE in that round earn 4 garnets, but the one who flew the farthest wins 2 TOLs and 5 garnets.
When a player reaches SPACE, the elimination candidate will be the player who has the lowest recorded launch distance.
The distance that qualifies as “SPACE” changes round by round due to background radiation.
SPACE is a minimum of 40 (thousand feet), but may randomly increase to up to 60 (thousand feet). Each player in the game will receive a random number from 0-4 each year; SPACE will be at 40+ the sum of all those numbers in the round.
One random year from 1954 to 1963 all players will be given the number 0; in another random year from 1954 to 1963 players will be given the number 4.
Ties
If two or more players are tied, we use the number of garnets they have as a tiebreaker. If there is still a tie, then the player with the highest number card, or second-highest card, or third highest card takes it (ignoring their discard card(s)). If there is still a tie, then they will play a live game of Goofspiel to determine the winner.
What information is public?
- All attempts by players to acquire cards and what cards they acquired.
- Players who used missiles and who they targeted (see card 9)
- Garnets spent on the Combustion Engine (see card 2*)
- Whether a player discarded their Black Hole (see card 3)
- Who launched and their launch distance
- The cards each player has in hand
ENDGAME
Each submission is a “year” in Space Race time.
If no player succeeds in a rocket launch, the game ends in 1963, and the player whose cards have the highest values wins. Humankind fails and must look to places other than SPACE for inspiration.
CARD GLOSSARY
There is no way to acquire these other than to fail a steal attempt or to be stolen from.
Feeding garnets into this on launch increases its value. For example, if you spent 18 garnets, this card is treated as an 11 and is potentially discarded. Combusted garnets are of course, gone.
You can attempt to discard this the same round you try to acquire it.
A straight is a set of 5 consecutive numbers, for example 0-1-2-3-4 or 8-9-10-11-12. 0 and 12 do not wrap around. Ignore value when constructing a set.
We don’t count players who tried to attain Clones in other rounds, or who tried to attain a different copy of Clones in the same round.
If you have missiles, targeting another player is mandatory. The effect stacks. At worst, missiles can reduce your height to one distance below space.
If you don’t have any other cards when you gain Intense Fuel, you end up discarding Intense Fuel.
This only applies to the launch penalty. Black holes stay discarded.
Tags
Cards (The game involves cards of any kind.)
Strategy (The game tests the players' strategic & tactical abilities.)